This is my fifth article since I was offered a chance to be one of five reader columnists for The News Tribune for this year. I am still in shock that I can pretty much write whatever I want and they actually print it. After blogging for two years and becoming a reader columnists you would thing I would consider myself to be a “writer” but I am not quite brave enough to claim ownership to that title.

Most of my articles have inspired newspaper readers, complete strangers to me, to write me personal emails commenting on my article or sharing with me experiences in their lives that parallel what I write about. I love these emails. They completely and totally make my day.

I received one the day before yesterday from a woman asking me if I would be interested in increasing my readership (I kind of snorted over her use of the word, readership, for my blog is modest in size and I don’t really consider the vast readership of The News Tribune to be mine). She writes for The Nauvoo Times, a Latter-day Saints publication, as well as authored several fiction and non-fiction books. Apparently a friend of hers read my article, in which I talk about a family road trip to Salt Lake City, thought that there was a chance I might be a a “Mormon mommy blogger” and passed it along to her. She offered me a (non-paying) position as a monthly or bimonthly columnist at The Nauvoo Times if I was indeed a Mormon. I am not Mormon, but I was extremely honored by her email and took it as a great compliment. I emailed her back letting her know that I did not fit the profile she was looking for but that I appreciate her compliment.

I think the reason this email sits so strangely with me, although very much in a good way, is that this woman perceived me to be a writer and a worthy writer at that. I know that one should not change the way they see themselves because of how others see them, but this validation of “writership” that sits in my inbox has caused a tiny shift in how I view myself. A good shift.

My coffee cup is empty, I have much to prepare to face this day – meals to make, children to hug and make ready for their day, and school work to organize both physically and in the form of thoughts in my head – so I must cut short this moment of self-reflection.

I hope if you get the chance to read my article, that you enjoy it.

Please remember that I want to keep my blog and identity hush-hush. I love comments and shares on the newspaper’s website (thank you to those of you that did so on my other articles!) but try and refrain from calling me Shoes or mentioning ShoesOnTheWrongFeet. Thanks!

9 Responses to I Still Can’t Believe They Print This Stuff!

I like the piece you had in the paper. The little things – isn’t that one of those lessons we all keep learning. I always wonder what makes a memory.
I also wonder what makes a writer. Are all of us full of self-doubt? We act as though granting ourselves such a title is so hollowed. It’s as if we respect it too much and it intimidates.
You write for the newspaper and run a wonderful blog. What more do you need to call yourself a writer?

I haven’t had a chance to read your latest article yet. (Super busy summer; haven’t done much reading at all!) But I did read this post and I must say, the best way to be a writer is to think that you ARE a writer. And you write so beautifully, why wouldn’t you claim that title for yourself? I struggle with the same thing, but more and more I’m being convinced that if others think I am a writer, then why can’t I believe that this is what I am? Happy summer if I don’t get back around to your blog again before September!🙂

I’m very glad you’re getting this positive feedback from readers, and your article about the family trip was charming. I wrote in newspapers and journals many years before the invention of the internet, and I’m still amazed by the possibility of getting to know my readers in a more personal way… and reading blogs. It’s a new world now, and it’s a lot of fun.